The prior art discloses various types of computerized medication dispensing carts used by nursing personnel in medical facilities. The basic objects of these inventions are to improve the documentation of the dispensing of medications, to reduce the errors in the dispensing of medications, to lower the costs associated with the dispensing of medications and to improve the security associated with the dispensing of medications. Such prior art discloses a computerized medication dispensing cart that uses a computer system to assist nursing personnel to view and input medication information regarding a patient while making rounds and to transmit and receive medication information regarding a patient with a pharmacy. The use of a computer system eliminates the need for each nurse to manually document the date and amount of the medication given to each patient and to later enter such information into the patient's records. The computerized medication dispensing cart shown in U.S. Pat. No. 536,084 includes a computer system on the cart which transmits and receives medication information regarding each patient while the nurse is making the rounds permitting the real time transfer of data as the cart is being moved throughout the medical facility. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,243, such computerized medication dispensing carts disclosed in the prior art may provide for a plurality of drawers in the housing of the cart that each contain the specific medication to be administered to a patient. For purposes of increased security, the drawers are kept locked as the nurse makes rounds until the particular patient's room is reached. The drawers may be unlocked by the nurse by entering a predetermined access code in order to permit the nurse to remove and administer the medications from the drawer to the patient. Thus, the nurse no longer is required to search a cart loaded with hundreds of medications to administer to a patient. However, nurses and other hospital personnel still must spend a substantial amount of time in sorting the medications into the various drawers and reviewing patient medication information prior to making their rounds. Because of the involvement of nurses in preparing the contents of the respective drawers, mistakes in medication dosages and amounts are made.
While the above-described computerized medication dispensing carts improve the availability and recordation of patient medication information while the nurses are making their rounds, such carts fail to sufficiently automate the drug dispensing function and often still require nursing personnel to sort medications for each patient into separate drawers and determine the prescribed dosages for each patient prior to making their rounds.
In addition to the computerized medication dispensing carts of the prior art, the prior art discloses various types of automated drug dispensing systems. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,847,764 and 5,713,485 are illustrative. U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,764 discloses a system for dispensing medications in a medical facility that dispenses medications from floor stocks in response to orders directly from pharmacists. Such system also contains software that identifies potentially dangerous drug interactions and controls inventory. U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,485 discloses an automated drug dispensing system which includes a cabinet adapted to store a variety of prepackaged multiple-dose pharmaceuticals in a plurality of bins for filling patient prescriptions. Each bin includes a dispenser coupled to a computer system for dispensing a packaged multiple-dose pharmaceutical in response to a dispense signal. When the package is dispensed, a code reader determines the code of the dispensed package and verifies that proper dispensing of the pharmaceutical has occurred.
The above-described computerized drug dispensing systems offer various features for improving the method of administering prescribed medications in a medical facility and for reducing its cost. However, such systems are typically cumbersome and not sufficiently mobile to permit use by nurses in the proximity of the patent's bedside while making their rounds. Such systems are directed to dispensing bulk and multiple-dose medications and fail to disclose an apparatus or method for dispensing unit-dose medications for an individual patient in response to a patient's medication information supplied by a pharmacy. Finally, such systems permit the administering nurse to access and record patient specific information relating to a patient, but fail to incorporate security features, such as locked patient drawers and alarms, found in the prior art computerized medication dispensing carts.
Thus, in view of the prior art computerized medication dispensing carts and the prior art computerized drug dispensing systems, there is a need in the industry for a computerized medication dispensing cart that can accompany nursing personnel from room to room while performing their rounds that dispenses prescribed medications in prepackaged unit dosages to patients through an automated apparatus and method in response to a computer system on the cart that stores and updates the medication information regarding each patient that is provided by a pharmacy.